


Curious Beats

by Iritvea



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Ensemble - Freeform, F/M, Pre-Despair, club/rave setting, elecTRONica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 12:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7891687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iritvea/pseuds/Iritvea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reupload. Fukawa and Togami struggle to have fun when the class of 78 goes out for a night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curious Beats

Touko caught sight of her reflection in a dirty puddle a second before Yasuhiro’s foot crashed into it. She wandered a few feet behind the rest of the class as they ambled into an an alley a few blocks from their school, on their way to a club, or party or something… Touko was a bit fuzzy on the details and was only tagging along because for some reason she hadn’t heard yet, Byakuya had elected to go as well..

Speaking of Byakuya, as they neared the end of the alley, he seemed to get tense. “ _Where did you hear about this place?”_ he hissed, voice rising above the crowd and aimed at Leon and Mondo at the head of the line.

“Friend of a friend,” Leon yelled over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”

“That doesn’t inspire confidence,” Byakuya remarked. “In fact…”

“This is it,” announced Mondo, as they approached what looked like the side door of a small machine shop. He looked it up and down before addressing the rest of the class, “Listen, just in case… us guys should probably go in first.”

“In case of _what?”_ barked Byakuya.

Mondo didn’t answer. He turned to the side and rapped on the door while Leon wove with nervous steps around him.

The door opened a crack, but not enough to for most of the class see who was on the other side.

“What is it?” an unfamiliar voice sounded.

Mondo shot a pointed glance at Leon, who jumped a little where he stood, before stammering, “D-Delivery for Taro Hayashi.”

The door closed and Touko snorted, thinking Leon had blown… whatever it was that had been. However, one second later, there was a loud click and the door reopened, this time swinging wide enough to allow entry to their entire class. A very large and muscular young man moved around to hold it open for them as the class began to file inside, save for Mondo who stayed aside to chat with the large, unnamed gentleman.

Touko gnawed on a thumbnail as she slowly moved in step, wedged between Byakuya, Celes, Yasuhiro and Makoto at the back of the line. She hadn’t exactly been enamored of this particular outing, and now when she caught sight of the dark, cavernous opening that her entire class seemed to be mindlessly pouring into, she was even less so.

“Hold up,” said Mondo. Touko looked up to see him holding a hand out in front of Aoi and Sayaka. “Where are the rest of the guys?” He looked back to the end of the line, “Togami, Naegi, Hagakure! You guys gotta go first!”

“That’s _absurd_ ,” pronounced Byakuya. “What on earth do you think your antiquated philosophy is going to prevent?”

Mondo seemed to actually think about it for a second before replying, “…At least somebody go in with Fujisaki, yeah?”

Touko’s eyes flitted to where Chihiro Fujisaki stood. If Touko was reluctant to enter, Chihiro was at least twice as reluctant, and paling slightly, Touko noticed.

“I’ll do it,” Makoto piped up from behind Touko.

Mondo nodded with approval and Makoto made his way to the front of the line, allowed polite clearance to move by everybody but Byakuya.

“T-Thank you, Naegi-kun!” Chihiro exclaimed as the two made their way inside.

“You’ll be all-right, kid,” Mondo called after Chihiro before turning and assessing the rest of the class.

“May we proceed with this ill-conceived outing now?” sneered Byakuya. “Or are you going to make us hold hands?”

Touko turned slightly and eyed Byakuya’s hand, which rested in the crook of his elbow. Mondo snarled but said nothing, and with an obvious reluctance, moved out of the way.

The remainder of the class filed forward slowly, with the doorway acting as a kind of funnel that allowed only one person at a time comfortable entrance. At the threshold, Touko froze, eyeing the stairs that led into a darker space below.

“S’matter?” came a grunt from behind her. Touko turned to see Mondo holding the door. Both he and the large young man eyed Touko quizzically.

“D-Don’t rush me!” Touko hissed.

“Nothin’ in that stairwell is gonna hurt you…” Mondo grunted, “and beyond that, if anybody tries, I’ll take care of it.”

Touko opened her mouth to comment on the allusion Mondo had made that didn’t make this place sound any more appealing. Another thought crossed her mind and she folded inward, murmuring mostly to herself as she remembered who all had gone inside, “P-Perhaps B-Byakuya-sama and I can protect each-other…”

Mondo sighed, “Sure… You gonna go or not?”

Touko shot Mondo a steely glare over her right shoulder and then turned to face the darkness within the stairwell. She swallowed and took a step down, then another. She realized after a couple more steps that the stairwell wasn’t that deep and she could kind of see the bottom…

… That was until the door closed.

Panic surged through Touko’s veins and she leapt backwards, blindly reaching for where the door behind her had been. There were a couple of grunts as her flailing hands collided with something.

“I changed my mind! Let me out, you hedo-“

“You’re almost there, for fuck’s sake!”

“Fukawa-san? Are you okay?”

Fukawa stopped moving and just barely regained her balance on the step, realizing after she had stopped moving that there was a pair of hands on her shoulders and one at her waist. She recognized the prior voice as belonging to Makoto, and the one that followed as belonging to Aoi.

“Fukawa-chan, it’s okay, look!”

Touko was about to spit out a rather pointed and venomous remark, but did allow herself to shake off the hands that held her and turn around.

She realized she was now face-to-face with Aoi, Sakura, and Makoto. It was apparent from the looks on their faces that they had come running when she started to scream. Beyond them, standing in the dimly-lit threshold of the next doorway, was Byakuya, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, face illuminated by cycles of blue, green and violet light.

Touko swallowed, feeling small at the knowledge that he might have witnessed her outburst.

“Can you blame her for not wanting to enter this cesspool?” Byakuya drawled, loudly, surprising Touko. “It’s a mystery why anyone with a shred of intellect would entertain this kind of…”

Makoto carefully spoke over the end of Byakuya’s sentence, eyeing Mondo and the other young man over Touko’s head with concern,  “Would you like us to walk you in, Fukawa-san?”

Touko’s eyes flitted across Aoi, Sakura, Makoto, and Byakuya. Hoping that “us” included the latter, she silently nodded, only to hiss when Makoto tried to take her hand.

Byakuya filed in the flashing doorway and Sakura followed. Aoi and Makoto walked beside Touko, only shifting formation to fit through the doorway.

The first thing that greeted Touko’s ears was the ever-intensifying, pounding beat of the music that reverberated through the place, so loud that, with every step she took further in, she could feel it vibrating in her chest. What seemed like thousands of shifting bodies writhed back and forth on the dance floor, bathed in the laser lights that ran overhead and all lit up in alternating patterns of blue, green, and purple. The pattern changed when the song changed, introducing an orange glow into the mix, along with a flashing white light that made everyone appear to move in slow motion and made Touko feel mildly sick to her stomach.

“Isn’t this place cool?” Aoi yelled over the music.

Touko had forgotten that Aoi was next to her, and turned now to answer with a truthful distaste. Before she could say anything, however, Aoi grabbed both her hands and pulled her into a semi-huddle with Sakura and herself.

“Come on, Fukawa-chan! Dance with us!”

Touko let out a squelched yelp of indignation that was further drowned out by the music as Aoi began to sway back and forth, pulling Touko along with her. Makoto moved into view from the side.

“Asahina-san, I don’t think Fukawa-san wants to dance…”

Touko looked down and could only let out a gargle-y noise of confirmation. Aoi’s hips swirled around, bobbing in and out of her field of vision. Touko felt her release her hands, and instinctively shot back a few steps. Aoi’s dancing became more enthusiastic, and Touko might have opted to describe it another way, too, but as she watched Aoi’s hips jut out at each side and shorts and top pull taut, adjectives sort-of failed her.

“Maybe we should have somebody stay with her…” Mondo sighed from behind Touko.

Touko spun around. Mondo and Makoto, sans the unnamed man from earlier, eyed her with concern. The concern made her boil with rage.

“I-I don’t need a babysitter!” Touko spat, increasing her usual volume to make sure she would be heard over the music.

Mondo shrugged, “Suit yourself.” He turned to Makoto, “Come on, Naegi, I want to stay close to the girls.”

Touko watched them depart off towards what she guessed could have been called the “front” of the dance floor, where the DJ was busy doing –whatever- and a few feet to the left Leon seemed to be trying to hit on Sayaka with an amused Junko and indifferent Mukuro looking on.

It took Touko a few seconds to realize she was alone-- a feeling that didn’t sit well with her in this unfamiliar place. She turned back towards Aoi and Sakura, only to find that they had moved away, closer to the main dance floor. Another song change seemed to inspire the crowd to begin jumping up and down and Aoi promptly followed suit, bouncing body within her low-cut tank attracting the attention of a scattered number of individuals nearby.

Touko scowled and inwardly laid down a string of insults directed at both Aoi and the lecherous onlookers, and then forced herself to turn away.

She suddenly remembered that she hadn’t seen Byakuya since they’d gone in the door and an additional note of distress wove its way into her growing discomfort. Alarmed, she scanned the room again, taking note of everyone’s positions—but unable to find him. She groaned and tugged nervously at her braids, trying a third time to locate him.

She finally found him at the edge of the upstairs balcony, leaning with both hands on a wrought-iron railing and watching with a sour expression the scene below. It had scarcely even occurred to Touko to look above, as so much of the action in the place seemed to be concentrated on the main floor, but she was happy that she had found him.

She located the staircase that led up to the second floor and headed for it, navigating through the crowd in more-or-less a straight line, averting her course when an oblivious couple would back into her path or a group of dancers wouldn’t move. She reached the staircase and carefully ascended, feeling the steps of the metal stairs buckle underneath her weight. She was forced to weave around a stream of traffic coming down as well as the occasional inconsiderate person loitering on the stairs, but eventually made it to the top.

She found Byakuya still in the same spot, possibly even in the same position as he had been when she’d spotted him from downstairs. His hands gripped the railing tightly and his eyes—the only thing about him that seemed to be moving, scanned the floor below.

Touko quietly approached, this time not really focusing on her immediate surroundings as much as him, and came to stand a few feet away from him. He gave no indication that he had noticed her, and continued staring down at the crowd. Touko placed a guiding hand on the railing and took another step closer, eyeing him cautiously.

“Distasteful,” he said suddenly, and loud enough that Touko could hear it over the noise.

A jolt ran through Touko. She froze where she was, trying to figure out what exactly he was referring to.

“Look at them,” he continued, and this time his eyes met Touko’s.

 Still, it took her a second to process that he was actually speaking to her.

 “It would almost be entertaining to watch…” he continued, “If they weren’t all simultaneously proving every conjecture ever made about their meaningless existences correct.”

Touko turned and peered over the railing, trying to relocate her classmates, whom she assumed Byakuya was referring to. She found Kiyotaka right off the bat—partially because he was yelling at Yasuhiro and Hifumi in the corner nearest them for apparently abandoning Chihiro. Next over, she noticed that Aoi had climbed on top of Sakura’s shoulders and towered above the crowd, wriggling around and pumping her fists in the air to the music.

“T-They’re like rats…” Touko idly commented in agreement. Her eyes rolled across the dance floor and landed on the trio of Makoto, Junko, and Mukuro. Makoto swayed back and forth, mildly moving his arms and tapping his foot in what Touko thought a characteristically safe and repetitive dancing pattern. The twins, meanwhile, orbited him while exhibiting much less tame dancing. After a while it became obvious to Touko that Junko was the one leading in the rather sexual dance and Mukuro simply mirrored her, but the effect nevertheless seemed to have an effect on Makoto, who looked away and blushed at various points in the cycle.

“Those whores…” Touko hissed. In part, she was feeling a pang of jealousy from the crowd that gathered around to watch the twins, and the unwitting Makoto, ‘perform.’ “T-they’d do anything for attention… I bet they’d strip-dance if there was a pole in here… even Naegi.”

“Thank you for the visual,” Byakuya sarcastically quipped. Touko turned, flushing, to see him eyeing her quizzically. “Though, I don’t disagree… If they aspired to do more than just wade through life, they might think to conduct themselves appropriately.”

Touko felt a fluttering in her stomach and a smile crept onto her face. Byakuya smiled –or maybe it was more of a smirk- at her before turning his attention back to the crowd.

Touko followed suit and immediately locked onto Kyoko who stood a few feet away, watching Junko, Mukuro and Makoto with a steely posture from just outside the cheering crowd. Touko thought she didn’t look especially pleased. Junko, as if on cue, chose that moment to crouch a few feet away from Makoto and began to move her hips in a circle with her backside facing him. Mukuro paused, seeming confused at first, but eventually elected to mimic this behavior too. The end result, when Makoto stopped concentrating on his dancing and noticed what was going on, was that he let out a fairly undignified noise that was audible even over the music, and sprinted out of the circle, pulling up his hood to cover his reddening face.

Byakuya chuckled, and Touko snorted. Touko’s gaze flitted curiously to where Kyoko had been, to find her gone. If that wasn’t a fairly typical Kyoko thing to do, Touko might have been concerned. Junko, for her part, pouted and called after Makoto for a moment before finding a new mark in Yasuhiro, who had just wandered onto the dance floor with a bottle in his hand.

“This truly is disgusting,” Byakuya remarked. “I feel like I’m watching a nature documentary.”

Touko inched closer to him, nodding, “I would rather they were animals…”

Byakuya’s smirk grew into a smile, revealing a row of impeccable teeth that glowed purple in the blacklight from above, “It would be more edifying, wouldn’t it?” he sneered. “Not like being funneled into this questionable establishment, and having images seared into your brain that force you to dwell on what your classmates do behind closed doors.”

“If they even do it behind closed doors,” sniffed Touko. “I doubt most of them even have that kind of decency.”

Byakuya leaned forward slightly and let out a short, dry laugh through his teeth.

“I don’t doubt that…” He finally said, turning back to Touko.

Touko froze as their eyes met and Byakuya held her gaze. At that moment, there was something different in the air and, maybe it was her imagination, but Byakuya seemed to be reacting to it, too. He raised a hand, the hand closest to her, from the rail and moved it towards hers.

Touko’s heart skipped a beat as she watched him uncurl his fingers and gently place the nearest three on top of hers. Her eyes flew to his face, where she found him to be fixing her with a rather intense gaze. He moved closer, and shifted his hand enough that it perfectly cupped hers on top of the railing.

“Byakuya-sama…”

“I take it you wouldn’t have visited this place had it not been for the insistence of our classmates?” Byakuya inquired. There seemed to almost be a sparkle in his eye as he said it.

“Well, n-no Byakuya-sama… But… I also wanted to come… Because of you.”

Byakuya’s eyes widened. For a second it appeared as though he hadn’t considered that possibility, but that would have been absurd, given Touko’s frequent voicing of her feelings for him.

He turned back to the dance floor, “I see…”

Touko inched closer, “Why did you decide to come, Byakuya-sama?”

Byakuya didn’t respond immediately, and when he did speak, he kept his eyes anchored on a point at the front of the stage. He didn’t remove his hand from hers, however. “I was curious what a place like this could offer. Admittedly, I realized once we entered that I had been operating on misperceptions, fostered by the fact that none of our classmates seemed capable of this referencing establishment in anything other than oblique terms.”

Touko gnawed on her thumbnail, “T-They were probably worried about getting caught…”

Byakuya nodded, “I had surmised that this gathering, at best, operates below the radar…”

“Are you worried, Byakuya-sama, about someone seeing you here?”

This time, Byakuya was quick to return his attention to her. He seemed surprised.

“Not when the Togami Conglomerate has a fleet of lawyers and spin doctors specifically on-call in case of any worst-case scenario that could result from an incident in a place such as this. Not that anything catastrophic could possibly befall my reputation when I have no intention of engaging in any sort of illicit behavior… Unlike our classmates.”

“That’s true…” murmured Fukawa.

“What about you?” Byakuya asked. “How does it impact a famous literary talent to get caught in a place like this?”

Touko bit her lip, “Mmm… I could always say I was doing research… But my publicist is always saying I should take risks… I w-wouldn’t like it –what people would say about me- but something like this would probably make me more popular…”

Byakuya arched his eyebrows, “It sounds like your publicist abides by the saying, ’any press is good press…’ Though it’s true that it could possibly boost sales of your novels, at least temporarily…”

Byakuya turned away to study the crowd again. Touko noticed, following his gaze, that Yasuhiro seemed to be much more at home in the circle with Junko and Mukuro than Makoto had been. In another spot where there were tables and something that looked like a bar, she found Celes seated neatly in a booth, surrounded by what looked like a dozen similarly-dressed young men, a few of which darted back and forth from the bar-like structure to fetch her things. Chihiro had found a comfortable niche dancing timidly next to Sakura and Aoi, and Mondo and Leon appeared to be trying to teach Kiyotaka a specific dance move next to Kyoko, Sayaka, and a still-somewhat-uncomfortable-looking Makoto.

“Suffice it to say my curiosity has been satiated…” Byakuya drawled. He removed his hand from the rail, which would have saddened Touko, except that he returned it a second later to grasp Touko’s hand and pull it towards himself. “I don’t suppose you know how to dance?”

“B-Byakuya-sama…” Touko breathed, as a gentle tug on her hand led her closer. “I-I- haven’t but…”

Before she could finish, Byakuya lifted her arm and pulled her towards him, catching her with a hand in the small of her waist.

“I’m sure we can figure it out…” He muttered, making Touko swoon. “I mastered ballroom dancing when I was _four_ … How much harder could this possibly be?”

Touko nodded, but thought back to Junko and Mukuro as she commented, “T-This dancing seems quite a bit different…”

Byakuya’s response to this was to raise his head and spend another moment scanning the crowd.

“Yes… It seems to involve a lot of circular hip motions… Especially on what would be… Your part...”

Touko flushed, “I-I- can do that…”

This drew Byakuya’s attention back to her with a raised eyebrow. “Show me,” he uttered in a low voice.

Touko paused for a moment, realizing she really would have preferred a reference point to start, as she had some idea what to do, but not enough to execute it on command. She hastily scanned the dance floor, passing over couple after couple, until she found one that seemed to resonate with her somehow.

The dancing that the couple was doing was not unlike a slow dance, but the boy had his hands on the girl’s hips instead of her waist, while she had her arms looped around his neck. Her hips moved side-to-side in a slightly more exaggerated fashion than did his, but they were otherwise synchronized and it seemed to fit well when she replaced it in her imagination with herself and Byakuya.

Touko flushed and, feeling bold, reached her arms up and clasped her hands behind Byakuya’s neck. She moved in closer and carefully positioned her feet at the same width as his. He seemed unsure for a moment, but then caught sight of the same couple, and mirrored the guy’s actions by placing his hands on Touko’s… waist.

Touko stared.

“Y-you can move them lower…” She offered.

“I’d rather start here, if you don’t mind,” Byakuya answered.

Touko chewed her lip and quickly checked the positioning of the couple. Aside from Byakuya’s hands on her waist, she was confident that they looked nearly the same as this couple and so she felt comfortable using them as a reference as she began to slowly swirl her hips back and forth. This of course required the flexing of her core muscles, which were framed in Byakuya’s firm grip. As she moved, he relaxed his grip and drew her in closer, which she responded to by adding in a back-and-forth wiggling motion, at first so she wouldn’t be thrown off balance, and after because she heard Byakuya’s breathing quicken. At one point the girl planted her foot, and thus her entire leg, between the boy’s legs. Touko thought this odd, but nevertheless mirrored it.

The result, unfortunately, was that she had much less balance. When she tried to rotate her hips in this position, she felt her foot curling in her shoe. A few revolutions had her leaning a bit too much toward the railing, her fingers pulling taut behind Byakuya’s neck. A final revolution gave her a little too much backwards momentum and she felt herself falling, realizing too late that Byakuya’s slackened grip on her waist meant he couldn’t stabilize her.

That ceased to be a problem, much to Touko’s immense surprise, when she found herself suspended a couple of feet above the concrete landing, with her arms still around Byakuya’s neck, and a strange pressure underneath her. Her legs were splayed out on either side of Byakuya’s bent knee, and she seemed to realize much faster than he did which part of her he’d grabbed when she started to fall.

Nevertheless, when he did realize it, he tried to amend the situation by pulling her back to standing, which resulted in her being practically thrown into a position that was flush against his chest. She released her hands from the back of his neck and moved them to his shoulders, pulling herself back so she could catch a glimpse of his face.

He kept looking off to the side, face reddening at the bridge of his nose. He only seemed to remember a second later to move his hands, which he replaced on her hip bones.

“I… I’m sorry…” he managed after a moment.

Touko smiled and looked down at where his hands now came to rest.

“I-It’s all right…” Touko assured him, blushing a second later and adding, “Y-you can keep them there if you want…”

To her mild disappointment, Byakuya’s answer to this was to move his hands back up to her waist –no, even higher.

“I appreciate the offer, Fukawa… and also that you trust me to that extent… but I think I’ve had enough… Frivolity… for one day.”

With the hands he’d placed on her waist, he gently forced them apart. Touko released her grip on his shoulders, and allowed her arms to fall to her sides. He released his grip on her waist a second later and turned back to the balcony railing, folding his arms over the rail.

Touko took a step forward and Byakuya turned to watch her approach. She was about to speak, when…

“Fukawa-san! Togami-kun! There you are!”

Touko jumped as her name was called, and turned around to see Makoto racing up the last steps of the staircase, waving enthusiastically. He wove awkwardly, but quickly, through the crowd and came to a stop in front of them.

“What do you want?” Touko hissed, with more hostility than she really meant.

Makoto stopped in the midst of catching his breath, and looked up at them, surprised, “Oh! Sorry… I just came to tell you two that we’re leaving.”

“Why?” Hissed Touko, not bothering to conceal the disappointment in her voice that would have seemed odd to Makoto.

Makoto shrugged, “Maizono-san was worried that someone might report her to her manager… And Yamada-san has some kind of livestream to do, and Celes-san recognized someone she knows…”

“All right, we didn’t ask for a point-by-point,” sighed Byakuya. “We’re coming.”

Makoto nodded, “Everyone’s already outside. I’ll go tell them.”

With that, he raced off down the stairs, leaving Byakuya and Touko alone at the balcony rail once more.

Byakuya remained still for a moment, and Touko wondered if he planned on staying behind.

“Fukawa,” he said.

Touko blinked, “Y-yes?”

He backed away from the rail and stood, facing her. “For the record… I did enjoy dancing with you this evening.”

Touko smiled, “M-Me too, Byakuya-sama…”

“Maybe… We can find another establishment that’s more to our tastes and… continue… sometime…”

Touko rubbed her hands together, “T-That would be nice…”

Byakuya nodded, “We’d better get going...” With that, he moved past her and made for the staircase. Touko followed and together they made their way back out through the main floor into the alley where all of their classmates awaited them in an impatient semi-circle.

“Where the hell were you two?” cried Leon. “We’ve been waiting almost twenty minutes!”

“It’s scarcely even been fifteen…” Celes contributed, rolling her eyes. “But still, it is of importance that we depart as soon as possible… I recognized an associate in there from whom I’ve previously won a great sum of money. He… Didn’t take it very well, I’m afraid.”

“We’ll be at school soon but now it’s late and we gotta walk back...” Mondo commented, scratching his chin. “I’m thinkin’ we do a buddy system.”

“Agreed!” Exclaimed Kiyotaka, “Same partners as you entered with!”

“We didn’t have partners going in!” Shouted Aoi.

“Let us quickly return to school! We depart on my mark!”

Sighs and grumbles accompanied the following messy shuffle into eight nearly-random pairs and the group proceeded out of the alleyway. Touko walked happily next to Byakuya at the back of the line in a de-facto pairing which resulted from them staying back by the door while everyone else paired off.

They were halfway to the school when Makoto turned around and beamed at them, “So, did you two have a good time?”

Touko flushed, remembering the evening, while Byakuya opted to pretend he hadn’t heard the question. Makoto continued to walk backwards, waiting for a response, and when he got none, finally turned back around and resumed a conversation with Chihiro.

Touko allowed herself a quick glance up at Byakuya, who's attention was presently focused on the street signs overhead, but she was certain she noticed the tiniest patch of a blush bleeding into his features.

 


End file.
